Top lab CERN launches key new accelerator

Europe’s top physics lab CERN launched its newest particle accelerator on Tuesday, billed as a key step towards future experiments that could unlock the universe’s greatest mysteries. The Linac 4 accelerator will by 2021 be connected to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful proton smasher. The Geneva lab has long voiced hope that an enhanced LHC may help uncover new particles, possibly proving the existence of extra space-time dimensions.